


Dagny's Inner Thoughts

by weaverduckie



Category: Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-28
Updated: 2015-02-28
Packaged: 2018-03-15 16:47:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3454448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weaverduckie/pseuds/weaverduckie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Possible thoughts that Dagny might have had throughout the main action of Atlas Shrugged, set to lyrics from Imagine Dragons' "It's Time."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dagny's Inner Thoughts

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own the song that these lyrics are from! Imagine Dragons "It's Time."

_So this is what you meant when you said that you were spent…_

For the first time, Dagny realized that Francisco D’Anconia might not actually be the playboy that she thought. It wasn’t that his money was all spent, far from it, but that his energy and motivation to live in a world ravaged by thieves in the name of social justice was drawing on an overdrawn account.

  _And now it’s time to build from the bottom of the pit right to the top, don’t hold back…_

 She decided that she wasn’t going to give in yet…no, not yet. There was still a battle to fight and a war to be won. There was still hope as long as she kept fighting. She couldn’t just let the railroad fall to their hands, could she? No…She looked to the portrait of Nat Taggart to give her the strength she needed. She would defeat the thieves who wanted to take her railroad from her.

  _Packing my bags and giving the academy a rain-check…_

 It was time to find the Destroyer. The man who was single-handedly destroying the businesses of the country, and was helping the enemy win by taking away their opponents. He must be killed, if there was to be any hope of victory for her railroad, and for Rearden.

  _I don’t ever wanna let you down, I don’t ever wanna leave this town..._

Dagny was determined to find him, if only to keep Hank in the country and in business. She was too far in now to let him go…she loved him. There was nothing else to do but to make sure the one that wanted to take him away would never take anyone away again. She didn’t want to run away from her beloved New York, but there was no choice at this point. She had to go on a hunt.

  _Cause after all, this city never sleeps at night…_

 The streetlights came on as her heels echoed on the sidewalk below her. Cars flew past at alarming rates, as if there was a race to a finish line far outside her perception. Lights in the office buildings were going out, and she knew that the shift of the truly dedicated or truly hopeless had begun.

  _It’s time to begin, isn’t it?..._

The battle was beginning in earnest. It was a race against the clock to make sure that no Destroyer ever came to steal her love and her work away from her, if ever those two things could be separated.

  _I get a little bit bigger but then I’ll admit I'm just the same as I was…_

 She was so tired of trying. She thought that maybe her accomplishments could save her from the fire of her enemy’s purgatory, but she knew that was only wishful thinking. She was no closer to defeating them now than when she took her first step into the office that she now held at Taggart Transcontinental.

_Now don’t you understand that I'm never changing who I am?…_

 She was a businesswoman first and foremost. There was something in her blood that pushed and prodded at her, screaming at her to keep going, to keep fighting. It would be so simple to give in and let the thieves take everything that she had worked so hard for, but that wasn’t right.

  _So this is where you fell…_

 Hank Rearden was gone, felled by the Destroyer.

  _And I am left to sell…_

 What was she going to do now? It was as if he was targeting her, trying to find the thing that would make her the most susceptible to capture and death. She could resist, couldn’t she?

_The path to heaven runs through miles of clouded hell right to the top, don’t look back…_

 She had been to the valley and met her destroyer. She had come back out again, still with no intention of joining them. If she were to leave, there would be no escape from the tragedies that would befall her beloved railroad line. There would be nothing she could do except for wait it out. They claimed that they would rejoin the world when the thieves were gone, but she had her doubts.

  _Turning to rags and giving the commodities a rain-check…_

 She would have to give up all the wealth that she had accumulated on the earth as she knew it. There was to be nothing left over from the outside world except those things which she inherently possessed, the fruits of her mind.

  _I don’t ever wanna let you down, I don’t ever wanna leave this town…_

 She promised John that she would come back, eventually, when the timing was right and there was nothing else that she could do for her company except for leave it. The inner conflict in her head screamed out against this inevitability.

  _Cause after all, this city never sleeps at night…_

 Day after day and often into the night she would hear about new initiatives that would slowly drive her into the ground. Night after night she thought about how she would defeat them.

  _It’s time to begin, isn’t it?..._

It was time to find him. She couldn’t stay away any longer, the risks be damned. He knew that she would betray him, it was all part of the plan.

  _I get a little bit bigger but then I’ll admit I'm just the same as I was…_

There was no going back, once she laid eyes on him. She had thought that she could resist him, but she was wrong. That final moment they shared, there was nothing that they could do to stop the inevitable tidal wave that was coming straight for them.

_Now don’t you understand that I'm never changing who I am?…_

 They believed her. They never doubted for once second that she might be lying to their faces, that maybe she was on the side of her oppressors.

  _It’s time to begin, isn’t it? I get a little bit bigger but then I’ll admit I'm just the same as I was…_

She knew that it was time to give in to the Destroyer, no, to John Galt. To the man that was going to save her life.

  _Now don’t you understand that I'm never changing who I am?…_

She was a businesswoman, everyone else be damned.

  _This road never looked so lonely…_

 There was nothing left for Dagny Taggart in New York. She would have to leave to find likeminded people/

  _This house doesn’t burn down slowly…_

 It would take a long time to finally destroy the railroad, but it could be done, and she would have to see every last step of the process.

  _To ashes, to ashes…_

It would soon be gone and they would be able to rebuild again.

  _It’s time to begin, isn’t it? I get a little bit bigger but then I’ll admit I'm just the same as I was. Now don’t you understand that I'm never changing who I am?_

She would save the line by leaving it. She hadn’t done it any good by staying, and this was the only other option. Yes, it would hurt to watch it be run into the ground, but she had only been prolonging the same painful process.

  _It’s time to begin, isn’t it? I get a little bit bigger but then I’ll admit I'm just the same as I was. Now don’t you understand that I'm never changing who I am?_

 It would all be over soon, if they just sat back and watched. 


End file.
